3.18.17

It's been sunshiny for a day and a half! We have broken all kinds of crazy records for rain and no sunshine this year. Like a couple weeks ago, 3 days of sunshine since October. And we've already met the rain total for the YEAR! So, the last bit of sunshine has been so refreshing and I'm hoping for more!

Precious is even soaking it up!!

We went to Macey Adams farewell for her mission. It was good and so great to see another missionary ready to go out. I can hardly believe that it will be around a year and a half until Keagan goes!

Speaking of Keagan.. He is my little romantic! He asked a girl from the Deschutes River ward to Mormon Prom this weekend. Mormon prom is at the end of April. He got a miniature glass globe, like in Beauty and the Beast and made her a sign.


(I forgot to ask him if he spelled beautiful wrong on purpose...)

They made homemade pizzas and watched a movie for their date.


Our cutie is 11 months old! Less than two weeks now until we see them!

The nearby church sign said something like, calm is a super power. It made me smile and think, that's so true. And if you're calm, you are able to have the spirit of the Holy Ghost with you.. and that is definitely a super power.
And I'm super excited I have some of "my boys" rms coming to stay with us this week. It's their spring break.

I love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Shoop

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3.12.17

Hello! How's everyone doing?
I'm starting to get so excited about seeing my Denton family- Melissa, Chaz, and HAZEL! General Conference weekend and week.
This is how most of our weekends start.. us all around the phone to see miss and Hazel.


Keagan got new glasses and you can see his big hair. Melissa teases him that he looks like Jimmy Neutron. Haha.

We went to his choir concert this week, too. Keagan and his harem.


One of our dear friends in our ward is Brother Kay. He's in his 80s. I love him and visiting with him. He recently gave his life history book for us to look over/read. It has been fun to read! Tonight he was talking about making good choices and talking about his dad he said something like, dad made the right choice so fast, that the Holy Ghost didn't even have time to prompt him. That made me smile, may we be making good choices so often that the Holy Ghost may be our side constantly and not have to nudge us so often.
Love you all!
Sis shoop
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3.5.17

It was a good week. I'm going to let my pictures tell the story, since that's what most of you look for.


This girl melts my heart! I'm starting to get so excited to see them soon for spring break! I'm also getting so excited to see some of our Utah friends! We'll be there the first week of April.

This past Thursday, we had a mini family reunion. My mom's older sister moved to Louisiana a couple of years ago to live with her son, my cousin Blair. They came into town to visit, so a few of us met together. It was nice to see a few relatives. We don't get together very often. My other aunt lives only a half hour away, but we only see her once or twice a year.

My aunt Jet the youngest, my aunt Connie (the oldest) from Louisiana, and my mom.


My mom and Keagan


My cousin Blair and me. Sadly, the last time we saw each other was 14 years ago at my Grandpa's funeral. It was nice to be able to just pick up and start visiting again.


This Friday, I did recess duty for Mt. View elementary. They never cancel recess. It rained so hard! And was so windy! I thought I was dressed for the weather.. but when I got home, I was soaked from my toes to my knees. And it took me a couple hours to warm back up. My umbrella whipped inside out a couple of times, too.

My dad came over Saturday for a unexpected visit. It was so nice! We were able to look at old family pictures, some from the 1950s! And hear stories. I really enjoyed it! My dad is sometimes crazy!! And it was such a good visit!

Ray signed the missionaries up for dinner and forgot to tell me. It was all good. I had made pizzas for preschool earlier in the week and so we had homemade pizza. I love having them over!


Oh, and Blake Green got to come home from the hospital! Thank you for your prayers! So happy for him!

I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true! I'm so thankful for it in my life! And I love you all!
Sis shoop
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2.19.17

I had something else in mind to write tonight, but then something else came up.
One of my first missionary boys that served in the WATac isn't doing to well. Blake Green.
(Here he is on the right when he first came out).

He's in the hospital. Here is what his mom wrote:

Hey everyone.
I just wanted to thank every single one of you who fasted for Blake and had him in your thoughts and prayers. I feel like we are already seeing miracles from all of your faith.
I have some updates on how Blake is doing right now. We talked to the infectious disease team at the hospital today and they gave us some more information about what's going on with Blake. So the official cause of Blake's issues is this thing called "fuso bacterium" or Lemierre's Syndrome. He does not have legionella/Legionnaire's Disease, and that information was miscommunicated by the neurosurgeons. The fuso bacterium is what caused his sore throat in the first place. His throat was so sore at one point that it caused some tearing and the bacteria entered the bloodstream and into the lungs and brain. That bacteria caused the abscess in his brain which messed with his ability to communicate, as well as a tiny little blood clot which made the right side of his body lose movement. Both of those are why Blake needed the surgery on his brain. Because of what the bacteria is, he's already been being treated for it (from the time we brought him to the hospital) and he's already reacting positively to it, and they're planning on taking him off of the unnecessary antibiotics.
He is doing so well already today, given what's been going on, and the fact that he was just in surgery two nights ago.
I could not be more grateful for all of you and I know our families are beyond grateful, too. We have been so blessed. Blake still has a long way to go, and we would all appreciate it if you could keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

So, I would like to ask you for your prayers for him too. He calls me momma Shoop and he means the world to me!

We went to a wedding this weekend of Shantae and Jordan Williamson. (Bishop's oldest son). He looked so happy! He was my first to write missionary letters to. He started my tradition and it kept on through Josh, Logan, and Jesse. And then everyone else when they went out and came home. I'm so grateful for all my "extra kids".
We got to go to a missionary fireside tonight and it made think of all my memories of missionaries! So many firesides and transfer meetings! There was a 2 year stretch or so that I didn't miss one. Sadly for the first time ever, I don't even know who my missionaries are! Eek!


Lacasse came to visit at the missionary fireside.


At the wedding.


Helping with clean up of reception.


Love you all!
Sister shoop
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2.13.17

hope this gets to most of the missionaries in time, I guess if it doesn't, you'll have two next week.

I had an interesting experience this week. I sub a lot at the elementary schools. I never know what my job is going to entail. Sometimes I'm recess duty, sometimes I'm doing small groups, helping kids out. Most of the time it's a lot of fun. Those mornings I go, in my prayers, I ask to be a good example, to be kind to everyone, and have a good day. I've been subbing at 7 oaks a few times lately and there has been this person that works there that I can not tell if they are male or female. (Welcome to Olympia). This week, I worked in the room that this person works in. From what I gathered, this person is a he, but maybe changing into a she.. I don't know. They have a male voice, but woman features. But my point is.. a primary song came into my head,

“Love one another as Jesus loves you.
Try to show kindness in all that you do.
Be gentle and loving in deed and in thought,
For these are the things Jesus taught.”

I was nice to this person. ( It wasn't hard, they were a really nice person). I could tell that not many people talk to this person, and they had a beautiful smile.
I think it's important to nice to everyone even if you don't agree or understand their lifestyle. Anyways.. it was a good experience.
This week it poured!!! We set a record for rainfall! I heard that Tumwater Falls was overflowing. So, of course, I wanted to go see it. It's one of my favorite places to go anyways. We couldn't make it until Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny day. It wasn't overflowing anymore, but come down fast and loud! I love the sound of the rushing water.


These are the walls it was spilling over.


We also went to this little scenic park in Tumwater. It's amazing! You can see the Olympic mountains to the left, the water of downtown Olympia and the Capitol in the middle and to the right Mt. Rainier! (You can tell by my directions, I'm not from Utah! Ha! No north, east, from me)


Love ya!
Have a good week!
Sis Shoop
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2.5.17

The excitement of the day.. snow! I know most of you are where there is a lot of snow and are sick of it. Well, I'm a little sick of it and winter, too, but we don't get that much here. It starting snowing/raining this morning. When we were at church, it switched over and hasn't stopped, yet. It's predicted to snow until noonish tomorrow. We just got the text.. no school tomorrow! The make up day is February 21. 

Coming out of church. 

A couple hours later. 

Now 

This weekend Ray and I went to Ocean Shores by ourselves! It was a late birthday present to ourselves. It's the first time Ray has had a Friday off that he wasn't scheduled at Marshalls (his part time 2 night a week job). So, we had to miss out on a couple things, but there is always something! So we decided to go. 

It was cold and rainy. I still loved it. I love the ocean. I'm a true Washingtonian.. I think I prefer it colder than hot. Poor Ray was being a good sport, but didn't love it. He was freezing!!

We got free t shirts from T-mobile. Ray wears this for bedtime and every time, it cracks me up! He got new glasses, too

In Rs, we talked about this talk. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/10/lest-thou-forget?lang=eng&_r=1

One of the comments that stuck out to me was someone saying something like, her husband always says that when you go camping, you take care of your gear and your gear takes care of you. Same thing goes for your spirit. You take care of it by doing all the things you need to do and it will take care of you, too. 

Love you all!

Sister Shoop 

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1.29.16

Sometimes I think there must be an easier way(and I'm sure there is...) when every week I enter all your emails in to send off. Luckily, I just type the first letter or two and it enters in. I do it on my phone, it's easier for me that way. But I haven't figured out a way to do a group email on my phone with the same emails every week. But then, when I'm entering them in and trying to think of everyone, it gives me a chance to briefly think about each name and smile and think how much I love each person on this email list! And how blessed I am to have you all in my life!

This week was mostly a good week. I had one night when I realized a difficulty in our lives and I did a why my and was very grumpy. But in the morning I was better and ready to tackle it and try to be better. At least with age, it's something I'm familiar with.. just tired of being familiar with it.. but oh well!

Ray is getting new glasses. The frames that work best for him were only in the Tacoma Costco, so we went up there to get them Saturday. I talked him into going to Point Defiance. The beach there- Owen Beach is one of my favorites. To me, it is so serene and relaxing. It was cloudy, but still so beautiful! You could see MT. Rainier in the distance. We didn't stay too long(Ray was cold) but it was just what I needed.


This weekend was stake conference. It was wonderful as usual! Sis. Blatter talked in the evening session and talked about many things to help prepare kids for missions like, make sure they know how to cook a little, grocery shop, clean a bathroom, wash, make their bed, get up by themselves, etc. etc. I came home and told Keagan and he was so funny! He didn't believe me! He said, mom, you're just saying that so I will do it. Ha! Ha! Silly boy!

The choir sang, "I believe in Christ" it was so beautiful! I wish I could of recorded it. And the spirit was amazing!

Love you all!
Have a good week!
Sister Shoop

And of course, cute Hazel pics!


This picture was the CUTEST thing ever! Hazel just randomly stopped and gave her mom a kiss! She had never done that before. She gives kisses sometimes when you ask her to, but not on her own. Melted all our hearts! And once again, I'm so grateful for modern technology so I could see it!

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